


Stars

by Shippeh



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-19
Updated: 2017-01-19
Packaged: 2018-09-18 15:44:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9392030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shippeh/pseuds/Shippeh
Summary: Keyleth and Percy, in the middle of the night watch, ponder the multiverse.





	

If it had been anybody but Keyleth, he would have stayed in bed, wrapped in a fraying sleeping bag near a dying fire. But It _was_ Keyleth, slouched against an errant rock, her staff towering up over her shoulder- so Percy carefully slipped out of his bed, creeping across the campsite towards her. He could see the outline of her antlers in the moonlight shift as she turned to watch him approach; he’d never been inherently sneaky. 

“My watch isn’t over yet,” she whispered as he slid to the ground next to her, the stone cold against his back even through the thick layer of his coat. 

“I know,” he replied, settling.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“Not tonight.”

“Bad dreams?”

“Nightmares,” he said, tipping his head back to gaze at the moonless sky.

She hummed quietly, and the two of them sat in a familiar silence before Keyleth spoke again. “Mine happen during the day,” she murmured.

Percy pulled his gaze from the sky down towards her face. His glasses were still tucked away in his pocket, his vision already useless in the pitch of night, and her shadowed face was nothing but a general blur. “Yours?”

“My nightmares,” she explained. “I don’t dream much, or, I don’t remember them often.”

“Small favors,” he joked, trying to force a smile.

He liked to imagine she did the same. “Yeah,” she agreed, “I think so. Though, sometimes- Sometimes Vax wakes in the morning smiling and he will tell me that he dreamed of his mother, and I think maybe that would be really nice. To dream about my mother.”

“Me too,” Percy said softly, almost nothing more than a whisper under his breath. He turned from her and looks back to the sky, and the glittering stars that seemed to flicker in and out as he watcheed.

“I don’t remember what she looks like,” Keyleth confessed, and when Percy glanced towards her out of the corner of his eye, he could see that she was no longer looking at him, either. “I try to, but it… she changes. In my mind.”

It was hard to justify envying her that, but sometimes when Percy looked in the mirror, or could not avoid looking Cassandra in the eyes any longer, he wished he didn’t know exactly which features they shared. “I imagine she probably looks like you.”

“Probably,” Keyleth agreed with a tiny laugh, and then a sigh. Silence surrounded them again for a while, nothing but the absent rustling of nocturnal creatures in the bushes around them. After a while, Keyleth slipped her hand into Percy’s, leaning closer until her shoulder rested against his. He wrapped his fingers around hers, shocked, as always, by the vibrant warmth of her skin. She was constantly a warm, vivid reminder of life, of the very act of living. She had always been the best of them. 

He wasn’t sure how much time passed peacefully between them, hands comfortably clutched between their legs, when Keyleth spoke again. “Do you know much about different planes, Percy?”

“A bit,” he admitted, “Just what I’ve read about. Or been forced to visit. I think you’d know more than I would.”

“I just make things happen, I don’t know how they work,” she said.

“Fair enough. Why are you asking?”

“Well, I was just thinking…” Keyleth paused for a moment, and he squeezed her hand, encouraging her to go on. “I was just wondering if maybe there are other versions of us out there somewhere.”

“Different timelines?” he mused, considering. “Maybe. There are no limit to the number of planes, in theory. I would suspect it isn’t something many people would dare explore. Or if they do, they likely don’t come back.”

“I hope they’re happier.”

“It’s a nice thought,” he agreed. 

“Percy,” Keyleth began, before pausing. He let her think about her words, waiting, and eventually she continued. “Do you think there are a version of us out there that end up together?”

“Us? Like-”

“Like you and me.”

Percy turned from the sky to her look at her, and was startled to find she had inched even closer to him. The closer she got, the blurrier she became, but her eyes, reflecting distinct starlight, seemed as clear as ever. He lifted his free hand cupped her chin gently, calloused thumb running along the line of her cheekbone. “You and me?” he murmured, and then closed the distance between them with a kiss. 

It wasn’t elaborate, just a press of cold lips to warm for a moment that seemed to last forever in the quiet dark.

Finally, he pulled away, trailing his thumb over her soft skin once more before letting his hand fall again at his side. Their eyes met, breath mixing. “Probably,” Percy said, licking his lips quickly, wondering if he could taste her on them- but they weren’t anything but chapped.

Keyleth sighed carefully and leaned back against the rock. “I hope they’re in one of the happy timelines.”

“Yeah,” he said, letting his eyes drift back towards the open sky. “Me too.”


End file.
